LONG ISLAND, N.Y.
An individual who defied court orders by operating a multimillion mass-mailing fraud scheme is facing up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced, according to officials.
Tully Lovisa, 55, of Huntington Station, New York, plead guilty on Friday in federal court on Long Island before a magistrate judge, prosecutors announced.
Lovisa plead guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud for sending prize-promotion mailings that intentionally misled recipients, many of whom were elderly and vulnerable, to believe that they could claim a large cash prize in exchange for a modest fee.
Victims who submitted fees did not receive large sums of money.
Lovisa operated the prize-promotion mailing scheme in violation of court orders that resulted from a lawsuit against him by the FTC.
Lovisa also pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection with a related scheme to defraud the FTC.
Specifically, as part of his resolution of the FTC lawsuit’s against him, Lovisa was ordered by a court to sell a home he owned in Las Vegas, Nevada, and to turn over the proceeds of the sale to the FTC.
Lovisa, however, failed to do so and arranged a sham sale of the house in September 2012 for $155,500 (which he reported to the FTC), and then actually selling the house in April 2015 for $540,000 which he did not report to the FTC.
“As the Attorney General has made clear, the Department of Justice is determined to bring to justice those who exploit elderly consumers in violation of federal law,” said Assistant Attorney General Joseph Hunt of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division.